5 Reasons being Tall is Awesome

Whilst there is usually a lot of talk about “tall people problems” and many jokes and memes are made about the inconveniences of being tall, I want to point out that being tall is awesome andcomes with many associated advantages and associated benefits. If you are tall, I hope you are embracing your height to the full, if not I hope this article will inspire you to stand tall and proud.

So, without further ado here are 5 reasons why being tall is awesome:

1. You have an advantage in most sports

This should be really obvious. As a tall person you have a natural height and reach advantage in most sports.

Height is very much favoured in sports such as basketball, netball, volleyball and tennis whilst having a longer reach gives you an advantage in rowing, fencing, martial arts, rock climbing, swimming and many more.

Growing up I played basketball for about 8 years (I know, very stereotypical for a tall person. At least I could answer “yes” when people asked me if I play basketball) and then switched to Tae Kwon Do (and have been doing it for approximately 11 years). Standing at 196cm tall (maybe around 180ish cm when I was younger), not only did I have a huge advantage at getting the rebounds in basketball but my long legs were like a long range artillery in Tae Kwon Do, making it difficult for opponents to get a hit in without first getting hit. Currently I play social mixed netball with some friends and because of my height the only positions I’m allowed to play are Goal Attack / Shooter (GA / GS) or Goal Defence / Keeper (GD / GK) – no surprises there.

What does this mean for you? If you are tall and have always wanted to start a sport but are worried you won’t be good just jump in and try. Your height will already give you an edge so you really don’t have anything to fear. Awesome!

2. You are memorable wherever you go

As a tall person you rarely should have problems in social situations.

Being tall makes you instantly noticeable when you enter a room and people are more likely to remember you (especially if you are the tallest person in that room). Thus, it is extremely important to pay attention to your body language at ALL times. How you carry yourself says a lot about how you feel about yourself (i.e. your sense of worth and confidence) and that projects itself onto other people and dictates how they will respond to you. In a previous article I mentioned the importance of maintaining good posture as a way to improve your confidence. If you haven’t read that article yet, you can read it here.

Let’s look at this concept with an example: Imagine a large group of applicants all vying for the same position in a company. One at a time each applicant enters the interview room and chats to the interview panel before leaving. Assuming you are one of the tallest applicants in this group and you are well dressed with good body language then at the end of the day the employers might not necessarily remember your name but it will be hard for them to forget “that really tall guy / girl”. Awesome!

3. You generally appear lean

Look at most tall people and you’ll notice that they generally appear quite lean.

A study was carried out in 2010 at the University of Illinois titled “A new illusion of height and width: taller people are perceived as thinner” by Diane Beck, Barbara Emanuele, and Silvia Savazzi. In the study five experiments were carried out where participants judged the horizontal or vertical extents of two identical bodies, rectangles, or cylinders that differed only in their vertical or horizontal extents. The results showed that people judge a taller rectangle to be narrower nearly 70% of the time and a narrow rectangle to be taller nearly 60% of the time. This lead to the conclusion that: tall people sometimes look thinner than short people of comparable girth.

Also, I think that the taller you are the more your weight distributes around your body. If you take two people weighing 90kg, one standing at 2m tall and the other at 1.5m then the taller person will be much leaner whereas the shorter person may look overweight. Awesome!

4. You are naturally intimidating

Your height, especially if you are significantly taller than most of the people around you (and you are standing with great posture), will automatically make you appear intimidating.

This can be both a good thing and a bad thing, depending on the situation and what you are trying to achieve. It’s a good thing in the sense that you can make other people with you feel safe when out with you and generally in most situations people are less likely to want to start any conflict with you. It can be bad if you enter a room and want to meet some new people but your height intimidates them too much that they become shy and try to avoid you. A good way to neutralise this situation is to smile and display open body language. This will usually make people feel at ease and be less threatened by you.

5. No matter where you stand in a crowd you can always see

Being taller than the majority of people around you gives you amazing and unobstructed views in all directions. I’ve been to a few concerts where I had to stand towards the back but I could still see the stage better than 90% of the people around me. I’ve also found that in a big group of people, in an enclosure, the air is much fresher (less sweaty) up higher. I remember being at a music festival in 2012 where the headline act was Metallica. I was about 20m from the front and squished like a sardine among hundreds of fans. After about 10 minutes I could start to feel bursts of hot / humid and sweat filled air rising out from the groups of short people below me. I looked around and everyone was drenched in sweat and gasping for fresh air above. Standing at least a head above everyone else I did not have to endure this. Awesome!

I hope by now you realise being tall is a blessing, not a curse. Instead of feeling out of place and embarrassed you should learn to embrace your height and enjoy many of the benefits that come with being tall. Do you agree? Let me know your thoughts in the comment box below!

Trackbacks

[…] This brought me to the realisation that people, in general, tend to exaggerate their height, adding an inch or two when they think they can get away with it. Ask anyone that has met a person online, who claimed to be 6 foot tall, only to meet that person face-to-face and find out they are actually 5 feet 8 inches. This is somewhat understandable, we live in a world where height is associated with athletic excellence, and being tall brings a host of advantages (some of which were outlined here). […]

[…] that you cannot do something because you are tall. Your height is a blessing and it comes with many advantages and associated benefits that others would kill to have. You can make a lot of changes to your appearance but you can never […]

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